St George’s welcomes “Securing the future of excellent patient care”

A review into the education and training of medical staff in the UK has been welcomed by St George's University of London.

The ‘Shape of Training’ report looked at the structure of postgraduate medical education and training across the country to ensure that institutions continued to train effective doctors who are fit to practise in the UK, providing high quality and safe care while meeting the needs of patients now and in the future.

The report has laid a range of recommendations including a broader approach be established in medical retraining to take into account changes in the UK such as an ageing population, health inequalities and changing patient expectations.

Professor Peter Kopelman, principal of St George's, University of London, said: “This is a particularly important and ground breaking report which has taken a long hard look at the challenges ahead.

“We welcome its recommendations and agree with the report that the challenges are significant. We shall be actively addressing the recommendations in the report that relate to undergraduate training.

“We agree that it is critically important for our medical graduates to feel appropriately prepared and confident in clinical practice and we are reassured by recent surveys and feedback from NHS employers that this is the case.

“However, Shape of Training confirms the challenge of balancing postgraduate training and service demands and we are working closely with our partner NHS Trust, St George's Healthcare, to get this balance right not only for the benefit of patients and doctors in training now and in the future.